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State-regulated cannabis. What is it and when and where can you buy it?

State-regulated cannabis. What is it and when and where can you buy it?

7 September 2019 | (Last update at 14 October 2023)

Index

Update 10-13-2023
Update 06-09-2020
What is state-regulated cannabis?
Large cities dropped out of the experiment
The assortment
What will be the price of this legalized weed?
Buy state-regulated marijuana

Start-up phase cannabis experiment will start in Breda and Tilburg from December 15, 2023!

Update 10-13-2023 - The long-awaited start-up phase of the cannabis experiment will start in Breda and Tilburg on December 15, 2023. The government has announced that this crucial phase of the experiment, introducing closed coffeeshop chains, will be initiated with two legal growers who are expected to be ready for delivery to the coffeeshops in the fourth quarter of 2023.

This exciting development marks a crucial step towards exploring the possibilities of a legalized production and sales chain. The focus is on gaining valuable experiences with regard to the closed chain and all associated processes. The mayors of Breda and Tilburg, with the support of Minister Ernst Kuipers of Health, Welfare and Sport and Minister Yeşilgöz-Zegerius of Justice and Security, have taken the initiative to start the cannabis experiment.

With the start-up phase expected to last a maximum of six months, the transition phase will start. Coffeeshops in participating municipalities may then offer regulated products in addition to tolerated products. Although the exact planning of the cannabis growers is still uncertain, the ministers involved strive to keep the House of Representatives informed of further developments.

The possibility has been discussed of an eleventh municipality joining the experiment, namely Amsterdam. Mayor Halsema has nominated the East district. It is currently being investigated how this nomination can take shape, which may require adjustments to the Act and the Closed Coffeeshop Chain Experiment Decree. The bill for this is currently being discussed in the House of Representatives.

The coming months will undoubtedly be a crucial period for the cannabis experiment with Breda and Tilburg as testing grounds for a new era of regulated cannabis sales. Stay tuned for further updates and developments surrounding this groundbreaking initiative.

Update 09-06-2020 - The government has put an application form online for growers who want to participate in the state regulated cannabis experiment. From 1 July 2020, they can sign up via this page of the National Government. There are several conditions that the grower must meet. The grower must supply an extensive plan, in which the location, the (business) plan and the security plan are described. Ultimately, the government will choose 10 growers that may participant in the experiment.

What is state-regulated cannabis?

Startin December 15, 2023 the time has finally come. The Netherlands is taking a step in the right direction when it comes to the legalization of cannabis. With an experiment, until now often known as 'the weed test' or ‘the cannabis experiment’', the aim is to investigate the effects of the sale of regulated cannabis. Basically state-approved weed, in other words, state weed. The experiment will initially start in Breda and Tilburg.

Originally, 26 municipalities registered and ultimately 10 different places remained where legally grown weed and hashish can be sold. To be precise the following:

Large cities dropped out of the experiment

It has already become clear that the largest cities in Holland: Amsterdam , Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht, will not participate. One of the main reasons of this drop out is the demand of the government that every coffeeshop in the relevant city has to participate. According to the big cities, this was simply not doable for all the coffeeshops in the city. The lack of state-regulated weed in these cities is far from ideal for many residents and tourists in the "Randstad". They will now have to travel quite a bit to buy the state-approved marijuana.

Later, Mayor Halsema discussed the possibility of also nominating the East district for the experiment. To achieve this, the current law must first be amended.

The assortment

According to the advisory committee there should be a sufficiently varied range of cannabis supplied to the coffeeshops. It is known that 10 weed selected producers need to produce 10 kinds of marijuana each. Even though the current range in the cannabis cafes of course is much higher, you can say that this is a good start. It shouldn't be very difficult for the average customer to pick a (new) strain.

The assortment of a coffeeshop that participates in the experiment will not immediatly be replaced entirely. However, the politicians still fear for diversion into illegal trade if customers find that their favorite weed species is not sold anymore. On the up side, this new process will probably raise the quality of the weed. For example, you won't find additional substances like lead in the state weed. The information and specifications about a product will improve a lot compared to the current information. Growers will probably be obliged to mention how high the THC content of their grown cannabis is on the packaging. The political party D66, the party that devised the weed test, hopes to make a move to the criminal circuit that takes care of the cannabis cultivation at this moment. In this way, they will try to reduce nuisance and increase safety (and of course quality).

What will be the price of this legalized weed?

At this time we don't know a lot about the pricing of the legalized marijuana. However, many people agree that the price should not be higher than the current price, because otherwise the legal cannabis can't compete with illegal cannabis. In theory you could even think that if the plant is being mass produced, the price should actually be much lower.

Buy state-regulated marijuana

Wondering at which coffeeshops you can buy state-regulated weed? Below you will find a list of all coffeeshops that will (probably) eventually participate in the trial. Starting with Breda and Tilburg, where it will become possible from December 15, 2023.

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